পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/২৭১

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড

 I have taken the liberty of coming in here to explain our point of view. You can see the necessity for a background basis, because there have been misconceptions of what we have done and of our motives. I have given you extemporaneously this brief sketch, and now I will be glad to answer any questions, or to go into more detail.

 Q. Why was the first semi-public explanation of the American position one of condemning India, and why this belated explanation that you are now giving? The perception of the world is that the United States regards India as an aggressor; that it is anti-India, and you make a fairly persuasive case here that that is not the case. So why this late date?

 DR. KISSINGER. This is the highest praise I have ever had from Peter Lisagor, (Laughter)

 We were reluctant to believe for a long time that the matter had come down to a naked recourse to force, and we were attempting for the first two weeks of the military operations to see what could be done to quiet it through personal diplomacy conducted by the Department of State.

 We made two appeals to the Indian Prime Minister. We appealed also to the Pakistan President, and we appealed also to the Soviet Union!

 Now, then, on Friday the situation burst into full-blown war and it was decided to put the facts before the public. Now, I cannot, of course, accept the characterization that you made of the way these facts were put forward; that, they were put forward as anti-Indian.

 Q. I said the perception of the world public was that the United States was anti Indian because of the nature of that first background briefing at the State Department on Friday.


 DR, KISSINGER. We are opposed to the use of military force in this crisis, and we do not believe that it was necessary to engage in military action. We believe that what started as a tragedy in East Bengal is now becoming an attempt to dismember a sovereign state and a member of the United Nations,

 So the view that was expressed on Saturday is not inconsistent with the view that is expressed today. What was done today is an explanation of the background that led to the statement on Saturday, and it might have been better if we had put the whole case forward.

 Q. If I understand what you said, you said prior to the outbreak of full-scale hostilities between India and Pakistan that the Pakistani Government had assured the United States that it was going to take a number of steps, including return to civilian rule by the end of this month, to enter into negotiations with the Bangladesh representatives operating in Calcutta, to withdraw its troops from the borders unilaterally. Do you know at this point whether any of those commitments by the Pakistani Government still stand? If the war can be stopped some way, are they still willing to do all those things?

 DR, KISSINGER. In fairness, let me put these into perspective these various things.